Improvement in electrical bath-tubs



J. KiDDER.

Electric Bath.

Patented Jan. 9,1866.

N. PETERS PMlwI-ilhugmphen walhinghm. D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JEROME KIDDER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRICAL BATH-TUBS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 51,948, dated January 9, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JEROME KIDDER, of

the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Electrical Bath and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of a bath with my improvement applied to it, a: m, Fig. 2, indicating the line of section; Fig. 2, a horizontal section of the same, taken in theline as as, Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a transverse vertical section of the same, taken in the line yy, Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate correspondin g parts.

This invention consists in a novel and improved manner of applying the poles or electrodes of an electrical machine or battery to a bath, as hereinafter fully shown and described, whereby the patient or occupant of the bath may, with the greatest facility, move the poles or electrodes in any desired relative position with his body, according to which portion of the latter is required to receive the greatest effect.

A represents a bath, which may be constructed in any of the known forms, and is provided at its bottom and sides, internally, with perforated walls B, of wood or other suitable material of non-conducting powers.

At one side of the bath, near its ends, there are attached standards 0 0, arranged in such a manner that they may be adjusted higher or lower, as desired, each standard having a pulley, D, at its upper end. There are also pulleys E at the end of the bottom of the bath, about in line with the center of the bottom, and over these pulleys D E a tube, F, of india-rubber or other elastic non-conducting material, is fitted, said tube containing a wire, a, with which the wire b of one pole of the electrical machine or battery is connected. (See Figs. 1 and 3.) The wire a of the tube F has a metal plate or electrode, Gr, connected with it, and this electrode, as well as the lower part of the tube F and inclosed wire a, works underneath the bottom wall or supplemental bottom of the bath, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3.

H represents a standard, which may be attached to the same side of the bath as the standards 0 O. This standard H has the wire of the other pole of the electrical machine or battery connected with it, and to the upper end of the standard H which is aconductor) there is attached a conducting wire, d, inclosed within an india-rubber or other non-conducting tube, 1, the lower end of the wire at having an electrode, J, attached, which is rendered buoyant by a cork or other light substance. The standard H may be composed of a wire covered byanon-conducting substance-indiarubber, for instance.

The electrode J is designed to float upon the surface of the water in the bath; and it will be seen from the above description that aperson, while using or occupying the bath, may adjust both the electrodes G J in any desired relative position with his body. J, for instance, may be placed over any part of it and G moved underneath any part of it by actuating the tube F and wire a, or moving them on the pulleys D E. This adjustment or movement of the electrodes may be performed with the greatest facility by the patient or person occupying the bath, so that the electro-current may be made to circulate or act upon that part where it may be most required.

Kis a head-rest, which is composed of a wooden frame, covered with a suitable cloth, L. This rest may be more or less inclined, as desired, as it is not permanently attached to the bath.

I do not claim, broadly, the application to or use of electricityin connection with a bath, for that is old and well known in electro-therapeutics; but

I do claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The employment or use of the buoyant electrode J in connection with the sliding one, G, arranged or applied to a bath in the manner shown, or in any equivalent way, for the purpose specified.

2. The attaching of the sliding electrode G to the conducting-wire a, inclosed within a non-conducting elastic tube, F, which is fitted around pulleys D E, connected with the bath, as shown, for the purpose of enabling said electrode to be moved, substantially as set forth.

I JEROME KIDDER.

Witnesses:

M. M. LIVINGSTON, 0. L. TOPLIEF. 

